Elder Langlois' mission blog. Serving in the Milan, Italy mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints

Monday, June 9, 2014

Raging Waters! June 4, 2014

Ciao tutti!!!

Well, for all of you first of all who
don't know what Raging Waters is, its a water park. And what do you do
at a water park? That's right! Get wet and have fun! Well, that's
basically what these next couple weeks are going to be like. That's
right. We're baptizing here in Pavia!!!! YES!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm literally so excited right now. Every day, Anz
Parker and I are dead tired, but we can't stop smiling because we have
the coolest investigators ever!!!

Nelson,
first of all, is my main man, straight up G, home slice, coolest kid
ever. Every time we met with him (so pretty much every day) he gets even
COOLER! I don't know how its possible, but it is. He is going to be baptized this next Saturday the 14th. We had to change his date for
stake conference this weekend, but he passed his interview and he is so
ready. He is literally the best missionary ever already. He invites
everyone to come to his baptism. And he just happens to be friends with
one of our less actives that we've been trying to see and one of our new
investigators. He's so bravo. Literally, the definition. Look up bravo
in the dictionary, and you'll see that goofy smile of his. I love him so
much.

But besides him, we have had so many miracles this
week. This week was full of miracles. Nelson is coming along great. Like
I just said, he is super excited for his baptism. We met some of his
friends from his Italian class and he told me that he wanted to invite
them but he didn't know how to say it in Italian, so I did it for him.
He is literally such a great missionary already. He asked for some of
our bigliettini so he could pass them out to people. We are still
working on his family. He taught one of his aunts the other day and we
are seeing her again this Saturday. We are just now trying to see his
mom, sister, and other aunt.

The De Simone family is also doing amazing! This
past week, we had two scambi; one with the Capi, and one within our
District. On the scambio with the Capi, Anz Parker and Horrocks taught
them and got them to close their bar on Sunday and to come to church.
This past Sunday, all 5 of them were there and they had such a fun time.
The ward was really excited to meet them and it boosted Simona's desire
to get baptized even more. After church, we were talking to them and
they asked us if their baptismal date (for July 5th)
could be moved up? I couldn't believe my ears!! Then yesterday, while I
was on a scambio with Anz Salmon, we taught them again. We planned to
teach the Word of Wisdom, but when we got there, we found out that they
had already stopped drinking coffee and alcohol for an entire week,
without us saying anything at first. While we were talking to them,
Simona told us that she cannot wait until her baptism. Those are her
exact words, "non vedo l'ora". She is reading a ton still and loves it
so much. Max is coming along as well, just a little slower. We are
really trying to focus on getting them to read and pray together as a
family every night.

I literally cannot believe how fast everything is
happening right now. Literally, miracles are coming out of the woodwork
right now. We just found another family of 3, who were a referral. And we
set a baptismal date with the father, Weke for the 12th of July.
We are so incredibly blessed right now. The Lord's promise is true, he
WILL open the windows of heaven and pour us out a blessing, that we will
not have enough room to receive it!

We are working so hard to keep up with all of these
awesome investigators. It seems like every time we see them, they have
taken about 12 huge leaps forward in their gospel knowledge.

Its just like you said Dad in your email. Its so easy to love these
people because we can feel the Lord's love for them. I'm trying so hard
to leave every single person I meet, whether they accept us or not,
with a better understanding of the gospel and why I came all the way
here to Italy for two years. It really is such an honor to be a
missionary. I couldn't even comprehend how amazing of an experience it
would be, but now that I'm living it, I STILL can't understand how its
possible! There are way too many blessings for this to be real! But it
totally is. Like all the Africans say here, "God is great". haha. Its so
true. I love my Heavenly Father so much. I know he hears my prayers and
he is answering them in his own beautiful way. It's so great.

Thank you so much Dad for your testimony about your
feelings from your mission. I share almost the exact same feelings. It's
indescribable. I can't believe I've been here out a year. It doesn't
feel like that at all. I can't wait for this next full year I have to
just teach up a storm and help people come closer to Christ, so that
their families can be together forever.

As you can probably tell, I'm super happy and having
so much fun. Well, you're right. In fact, its so much fun, you could
say that its a party......a Ghanaian party that is!!!

So if you remember, we have two new converts who are from Ghana. We
did some service for them by cleaning off some mold in their apartment. Well, they were so grateful that Steven, the husband, went
up and bore his testimony about it. But the coolest thing was, that he
did it in Italian!! He speaks actually really well, but he's shy about
it, and he literally stunned the entire ward. It was awesome. Then they
invited us over to their house the next day to celebrate the birthday of
their now 2 year old son, Osborne. That. Was. So. Much. FUN!!!!!! We
walk in the door and their are balloons and lights and food and Ghanaian
music and it was literally the best. They are so sweet and they kept
telling us that they "love us too much" or they love the Book of Mormon
"too much" or they love this church "too much". They are so amazing.
Some of the most amazing people that I've ever met. We are definitely
going to see them when we do a giro here together. But not only that,
they invited some other friends over and we got to teach them! They
weren't super interested, but at least we tried! haha. And I totally
shocked them all with my ability to speak Twi. Steven and Comfort have
been teaching me a little bit every time we see them, so I put it too
the test and I actually had a conversation with them. They were really
surprised to see this white kid in a shirt and tie, speaking Twi to
them. I also got to speak Twi to Comfort's sister over Skype. She
literally died laughing and told me that I spoke really well. (Not that
well, because I didn't understand what she said when she said that.
haha)

But yeah. Life is just great. Way too much fun. And
speaking of fun, the scambio I went on with Anz Salmon yesterday was so
much fun. We had a blast. I'm so glad I get to live with him again. It's
crazy to think that I'm now where he was when he trained me, but even
crazier...that he goes home in like 3 months. Nuts.

Speaking of worldly things. GO KINGS!!!!!!!! We're
going to win the Stanley Cup again this year!!!! We are the comeback
KINGS!!!!! (haha...get it?) Keep me updated on the NBA finals. I bet the
Heat win as well, but who knows. That's crazy that BYU has never lost
at South Field. And its really funny that its always them and Cal in the
final. haha. Dodgers are the Dodgers, so oh well. Can't win them all.
haha.

Good luck with your finals this week Lizzy. Work hard so you can party hard for your birthday coming up.

Mom,
you bring up a good point. I trust your judgement. Mom always knows
best. haha. And thank you for plan B. The De Simone's are super grateful
for the help you guys are giving.

Send my love those good old WHS band kids. Especially Mr. G. Love that guy. I miss talking to him all the time.

I hope you all had a great week and thank you again for your emails and support.